Tip #1
How do I create a lookup of contacts based on the activities that I have scheduled with them?

Follow these steps:

1. Choose the View Menu, and click Task List. The Task List view appears.
2. Choose the View Menu, and click Filter Task List. The Filter Activities dialog box appears.
3. Set the filters to display the activities you want to view. You can filter on date, type, priority and more to get just the activities you want to see.
4. Then right-click in the window, and on the shortcut menu click Create Lookup. ACT! creates a lookup based on the contacts listed in the Task List view and returns to the Contacts view.

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Tip #2
How do I clear several activities at the same time?

Follow these steps:

1. Choose the View menu, and click Task List.
2. Select the first activity that you want to clear, and then do one of the following:

   ·	If all the activities you want to clear are contiguous in the list, hold down the Shift key and select the last activity you want to clear. All activities in between the two you selected are also selected.
   ·	If the activities you want to clear are not contiguous, hold down the Ctrl key and select each additional activity you want to clear.

3. After selecting the activities to be cleared, Right-click one of the selected activities, and choose Clear Multiple Activities from the shortcut menu.

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Tip #3
Once I'm in the Schedule Activity dialog, how can I navigate the calendars using only keystrokes?

Answer: In the Schedule Activity dialog box, you can do the following (this only works consistently if you do not use the keys on the number pad):

With the cursor in the Date field

With the Mini-Calendar visible in the Date field:

With the cursor in the Time field:

In any field with a drop-down, Alt+Down Arrow opens the drop-down for that field. Once open, you can navigate the drop-down with the cursor keys.

NOTE: Many of these same keystrokes will also work in date fields in the contact record.

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Tip #4
How can I simultaneously reschedule several activities? I want to move all of them to the same day.

Answer: First locate the activities you want to reschedule, then move them to the new date:

1. Choose View, and click Task List, then choose Edit, and click Filter.
2. Use the Filter Activities dialog to distill the activities you want to reschedule. (If you are unable to reduce your list of activities using the Filter Activities dialog, proceed to the next step.)
3. Using the gray selection buttons on the left side of the Task List window, highlight the first activity in the list, then Shift+Click on the last one to select all the activities. You also can select individual activities in the list by Ctrl+Clicking their selection buttons.
4. Once all the desired activities have been selected, press F4 on the keyboard to bring up the Mini-Calendar. Scroll to the month to which you would like to reschedule the activities.
5. Position your mouse pointer over the selection button of one of the highlighted activities. Press the left mouse button and drag onto the Mini-Calendar until the outline surrounds the desired reschedule date. Release the mouse button. All selected activities are rescheduled to the desired day.

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Tip #5
How do I schedule company holidays so they show on the calendar? I do not want my name to appear alongside the activity (for example, "John Doe- New Year's Day").

Answer: Create a new user, with login and standard access rights:

1. Choose File, point to Administration, and click Define Users.
2. At the Define Users dialog, click Add User.
3. In the User Name field, type Holiday.
4. Select Standard Security Level and make sure that Enable Logon is checked. Click OK.
5. At the Assign My Records dialog box, click Assign.
6. At the Enter My Record Information dialog box, type Holiday in the Name field, then click OK.
7. At the confirmation dialog box, click Yes.
8. At the Assign My Records dialog box, click Done.

To schedule holidays, log in to the database with the user name Holiday. Schedule your holidays as timeless to-dos, but bear in mind that some holidays do not always fall on the nominal date, but on a federal Monday (which is why scheduling them as recurring activities might not work properly). Consider using an unusual color, to make it easy to see and engender excitement in the workplace. When you are finished, close the database, reopen it, and log in with your normal user name. Now, when you look at your calendar, your holiday will display as "Holiday - Christmas Day." On the monthly calendar, holidays will display in the grid; on the weekly and daily calendars, they will display on the right side of the screen, as do all timeless activities.

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Tip #6
How do I perform a mail merge to a group but have the mail merge use email?

Solution:
Once your template has been created, make sure that all contacts in the group that you are going to merge to have a valid email address. If any do not, some or all of the mail merge may fail.

To perform a mail merge to a group, follow these steps:

1. Click the large Groups button on the bottom toolbar. If no group is currently selected, it will display . A list will appear displaying the groups in the open database.
2. Click the desired group to select it. The counter on the main toolbar will change to show the number of contacts in the group. This group is now the current lookup.
3. Choose the Write menu, and click Mail Merge. The Mail Merge dialog box appears.
4. In the Template group box, select the template that you want to use, Do not double-click it.
5. Under "Send output to," click E-mail.
6. Click Current Lookup.
7. Enter a subject, and check desired options.
8. Click OK to begin the mail merge. Do not stop the merge once it has begun.

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NOTE:
In some cases, if the group that is being merged to is too large (several hundred or more), the mail merge could fail due to lack of system resources. This number will vary considerably, and is most likely to occur on older systems. If you experience this problem, exit all other programs that are running and try again. In some cases, you may need to send to smaller groups.